Nipsey Hussle Recalls Shining Shoes At Age 11

Nipsey Hussle says artists on the West Coast can put up numbers just by being respected locally.

West Coast emcee Nipsey Hussle recently boasted on the “independent, entrepreneurial spirit” of his home state of California during an interview with Al Lindstrom. According to the rapper, an artist in California can put up decent sales numbers by simply being locally respected in their region.

“I guess on our coast or in California that’s like an independent, entrepreneurial spirit,” Nipsey Hussle says during the Al Lindstrom interview. “Plus, we in such a big, influential market that we can do our numbers ourselves, just off being locally respected. You can do real numbers. You know what I’m saying? So, I think a lot of that contributed to an independent, entrepreneurial spirit on the West. Everything I do I represent L.A.”

Nipsey further commented on his home state, speaking on traveling abroad and ultimately gaining a better understanding as to why fans are drawn to his music. He says it’s the raw and unapologetic approach he takes with his music that fans have come to expect from him.

“Even with this project I feel like I came full circle to bring it back home to Crenshaw,” Nipsey said. “I traveled the world. We made a lot of moves in the game. We became pretty successful. And you know when I came back from touring the world off TMC, I was like, ‘I know why they fuckin with me.’ I’m like, ‘I know what it is.’ It took me five, six mixtapes to really catch it. But I was like, ‘I know why. I know what it is that they connected to.’ So, Crenshaw was me trying to just saturate the thing—the project with the type of raps and type of music that they’ve connected to before. I think they like [that] raw, unapologetic L.A. story from me. That’s what they expect from me.”

Prior to speaking on Crenshaw, Nipsey recalled working as a shoe shiner at the age of 11 when his mother was unable to give him enough money to go school shopping with.

“I realized I wanted to work for myself when I was ‘bout 11,” he said. “I needed school clothes to go into the sixth grade with. My momma gave me $40 to go school shopping and I couldn’t buy shit. So, I was like, ‘I’m not finna stress my mama out. I just gotta figure out how to get money.’ And I used to shine shoes at Chambers when I was like 11. I used to make like $90 a day. Work six days a week. And I started to learn how to like hold my own.”

Nipsey Hussle’s “Hold My Own” segment with Al Lindstrom comes weeks after the Los Angeles, California rapper released his Crenshaw mixtape. Hard copies of the mixtape, which was available for free download, were sold for $100 each at a pop-up shop Nipsey hosted in Los Angeles. He reportedly made $100,000 in sales thanks to the $100 hard copies of Crenshaw.